Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Friday, May 06, 2016

‘Magnificent 7’ revives forgotten story of black cowboys

The roles they play, too — legendary frontiersmen like Jesse James, Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp — are typically ranchers, lawmen or outlaws battling for money or land on behalf of White America.
It is little surprise then that the racial makeup of America’s real Wild West — a melting pot of Europeans, Chinese, Mexicans, Native American and blacks — remains one of the country’s best-kept secrets.
Filmmaker Antoine Fuqua, who is in post-production for the hotly-anticipated “Magnificent Seven” remake, is one of a few big directors pushing back, having cast long-time collaborator Denzel Washington as his leading man.
“I said it needs to be an event and it needs to be something we haven’t seen — and more diverse. I said Denzel should play the lead role,” Fuqua said during a recent visit by AFP to his Los Angeles edit suite.
Fuqua’s film is a reimagining of the 1960 western starring Steve McQueen — which in turn was a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese-language epic “Seven Samurai.”
Released in the United States through Sony in September, the movie follows Quentin Tarantino’s Westerns “Django Unchained” and “The Hateful Eight” among the few Hollywood hits about black cowboys...more